Cat Storm Door

The cats like to go in and out of the house, and they do it very often throughout the day. We decided it would be wise to invest into a pet door that would let them go in and out at their leisure. We had a few options…

A storm door with a built-in pet door. Larson’s makes this, however the 32″ version is special order at Lowe’s and costs 300$.

A storm door with a DIY pet door. This would be much cheaper than the pre-built one (about 150$).

A screen door with a DIY pet door. This would be much cheaper too, but we wouldn’t be able to keep the main door open because the screen would let all the A/C out.

The Cat Windoor by Pet Safe. This is actually a viable option it’s 115$ which is significantly cheaper than the first option but we weren’t really sure how well it would work.

We decided to go with option 2. Here is what we did…

First we went to Lowe’s to look at the storm door options. We actually happened to be there during a 10% off all doors sale, so we got a 100$ storm door for 90%. We also bought the Pet Safe Plastic Pet Door – Large for ~50$ at Lowe’s. I also needed some aluminum jig saw bits for my hand held jig saw. Overall, we spent about 150$ after taxes. Since we did everything ourselves, we also saved 100$ off installation. It took me about 3 or 4 hours total to get everything the way I wanted it.

I first started by laying the door down on a few pieces of wood (to raise it up) and unboxed it:

I figured out where I wanted to put the pet door. I pretty much followed the pet door instructions, give or take an inch :). Then I tried to saw a straight line with my jig saw. I used a large piece of straight cardboard as a buffer between my jig saw and the door. This way I didn’t scratch up the door, it was also a nice guide to follow (at least it was suppose to be).

After I cut the hole out, I started prepping to put the storm door up. I just followed the directions that came with the door. It was pretty easy to do, I did require my lovely assistant from time to time :).

Once I had the door up and mounted, I moved onto finishing the pet door.

And here is Archie trying to figure out what this new door is all about :)

Apart from a few blood blisters from pinching my fingers, it was a relatively easy task. I am pretty sure this project increased my manliness by at least 15 points.

It’s not the kids themselves that restrict your personal freedom its that darn responsible side that they bring out in their parents that does it. I have expressed the way it works in a formulaic statement: (-F)The amount of freedom restricted (=)is equal to (R)the amount of adult-like responsibility you possess.

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